Year 6 pupils at Rydal Penrhos finished off their autumn sailing sessions on a real high despite a lack of activity due to COVID-19.

Rydal Penrhos is incredibly fortunate to find itself in a stunning location on the Colwyn Bay coastline just a stone’s throw from the beach. This is something our teaching staff take full advantage of, using the outdoors to enhance the school’s provision and gain new experiences outside of a classroom environment.

This also allows the school to organise a diverse and exciting extra-curricular provision for our pupils, which includes a popular sport that has been part of Rydal Penrhos’ proud history for more than 60 years.

The school has a dedicated Sailing and Water-Sports Centre – which is accredited by the Royal Yachting Association and was implemented to allow pupils to enjoy the freedom of boating, windsurfing, canoeing and kayaking in a safe and fun environment.

One of the few schools in the United Kingdom that has Sailing as part of the curriculum, Rydal Penrhos offers this to pupils from a very early age and the programme has gone on to attain a wealth of national accolades, with aspiring sailors competing at regional, national and international events, gaining plenty of success along the way.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions meaning sessions could not take place for a large part of the previous academic year, it’s been fantastic to see things return to some semblance of normality this time around.

Year 6 were without their curriculum Water-Sports lessons for around 18 months, but their enthusiasm and willingness to learn under the direction of specialist staff means they are now back under sail once again.

This was evident during their last session of the sailing season recently, with pupils demonstrating their sailing and windsurfing skills in abundance to round off what’s been a hugely impressive few weeks for all involved.

Mrs Lucy Davies, who is Deputy Principal of Rydal Penrhos, said: “Thank you to our wonderful sailing team for the brilliant lessons this term. These involved sailing, windsurfing, surfing and kayaking as well as plenty of background theory on winds and waves.

“Our pupils can’t wait until Easter to be up and on the water again!”